Everything in Between

Chapter Two

So I'm incredibly bored. So here's the next one:

Chapter Two:

There was a rushing noise. Sort of a like a buzzing, a bit like a hum, but more prominent, more like it was coming from an object than the air.

I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to see the trees from the park, and was a bit more than confused when I realized I was facing a brick wall.

I sat up straight and looked around where I was sitting. It seemed to be some sort of alleyway. There were doors that were more than likely back ones, with trash sitting outside of them. A little further to the left there seemed to be a homeless man, curled up in tattered clothes, and sleeping against the wall like I was only moments ago. To the right there was a bunch of people walking by on something that must have been a street, no doubt cars on the other side of them – the rushing noise that I had probably heard earlier.

Wasn’t I in the park last night?

I remembered something else, a field, but passed the thought just as quickly as it came. That was in my dream. The dream I had of Pat. The dream that seemed so vivid that I had thought it had been real when I woke up last night in a cold sweat. I was sure I was in the park when I woke up the first time so how the hell would I have gotten here?

I got up and just as slowly approached the street. Behind all the people, and the noise of what appeared to be the morning rush, there were tall buildings, ones that you would most likely see in a downtown or in a major city.

Had I been kidnapped? Did somebody bring me here and try to take my stuff?

I instantly slipped back into the alleyway, setting my bag on to the ground, and I pulled out everything to make sure it was all still there.

So if I wasn’t robbed, then what happened to me? I knew I couldn’t have been kidnapped because if I was, why would somebody just leave me in an alley? That didn’t make any sense.

My mind drifted back to the dream I had last night. Pat had mentioned something about getting me out and getting me away, but he couldn’t possibly have done this. Pat was dead - dead - and it was about time now that I owned up to that fact. But still, no matter how much I tried to shut it out, the thought of him helping me get here seemed just as likely. Wherever here was.

Figuring out my location seemed to be as a good start as any, and maybe a difficult one at that. I knew I wasn’t downtown because, well, Thompson didn’t exactly have a very big downtown, if you could even call it that.

I emerged back out onto the sidewalk and decided that my best bet would probably be to ask somebody. I could just pretend I was a traveler sort of person and that I had been wandering the highways for days when I stumbled upon this place. Then again people would probably want to know why I just couldn’t read the signs on the roads approaching the cities.

I guess I was going to have to be illiterate; an illiterate runaway. Which I suppose was only half true.

The first guy I saw was walking by pretty fast, probably late for work or something of the sort, and decided he would be my best target. He obviously had some place he needed to be; therefore, he would be the least likely to ask the most questions.

“Sir?” I waved my hand at him as he was passing by and I could tell he was trying to ignore me. I guess I would just have to be extra persistent. “Excuse me, sir, but could I just have your attention for a moment?”

He sighed in annoyance, and rolled his eyes while stopping and turning to face me.

Well aren’t you just a bundle of sunshine.